Nev. Suit Challenges Basic-Skills Test for Teachers

A state judge will decide by early November whether the Nevada
education department can revoke the licenses of teachers who fail to
pass a required basic-skills test.

Martin Kravitz, a lawyer representing a group of teachers who failed
the test, as well as the Clark County Teachers Association, argued in
court last week that the state uses the Pre-Professional Skills Test
improperly.

It was designed by the Educational Testing Service to assess college
students and new teachers, not experienced teachers, the lawsuit
argues, and the E.T.S. specifically warns that it should not be used as
the sole criterion for deciding a teacher's competency. The suit also
says that teachers--and even school nurses--are required to pass an
exam that includes material irrelevant to their particular work.

In their response to the suit, state officials argue that setting
basic-skills standards for teachers is reasonable, and note that
Nevada's cutoff score is low compared with those of other states.

The test is part of a system adopted in 1989 by the state's
Commission on Professional Standards in Education, which was authorized
by the legislature to set licensing requirements.

Teachers new to Nevada, as well as beginning teachers, are issued a
provisional license for two years. During that period, they must pass
the P.P.S.T., as well as tests geared to their subject-area
specialties, to obtain a full license.

Between 1989 and 1991, the basic-skills test was given on a trial
basis. But the commission required teachers hired after January 1991 to
pass it by that September. The panel later extended the deadline to
Sept. 9, 1994.

According to Keith W. Rheault, the state's interim deputy
superintendent, 64 teachers did not make the deadline, including about
40 from Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.

The Clark County union filed a suit against the education department
and the licensing commission, and District Court Judge Don Chairez
issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Clark County teachers
from being fired until mid-October. Last week, he extended it to Nov.
3, and he is expected to issue a ruling by then.

Many of the 64 teachers who missed the deadline have since passed
the test or received extensions, Mr. Rheault said, and only a few have
been fired or retained as substitutes at a lower pay rate. Chuck
Bolden, the interim executive director of the Clark County Teachers
Association, said the union's suit represents 33 teachers who have
failed the test, although the brief filed by the state attorney general
says that only 13 Clark County teachers are in danger of losing their
jobs.

"We know who these teachers are," Mr. Bolden said. "They've been
evaluated by the district and have been a success in the classroom.
These are not marginal teachers."

The suit asks the court to bar officials from requiring experienced
teachers to take the test in order to teach in Clark County, and from
denying a license to any teacher in the district based solely on
failure to pass it.

Mr. Bolden also argued that it was foolish to set a deadline several
weeks into the school year, and expressed hope that the judge would not
force teachers to leave their classrooms now.

"Teachers are in school now, and have put up bulletin boards and
bonded with the children," Mr. Bolden said.

In an unusual twist, the county union is also asking the judge to
remove Rick Milsap, the president of the Nevada State Education
Association, from the licensing commission. His slot on the panel is
one that the law set aside for a full-time classroom teacher, and the
suit argues that since his union job is a full-time post, his
appointment is illegal. In arguing his case last week, Mr. Kravitz said
that the commission is controlled by the N.S.E.A.

Political Concerns

The panel sought "to protect the key membership of the majority of
the unions of this state by developing examinations which would only
apply, not to them, but to all the people who arrived after them," he
was quoted as saying by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

William Hanlon, a member of the state board of education, has also
campaigned for Mr. Milsap's removal. "I believe the influence exerted
by special-interest groups has contributed to ... some of the
[nation's] lowest standards for teacher licensure," he wrote to the
state attorney general.

Mr. Hanlon said in an interview that he agrees the P.P.S.T. is
unfair, and argued that the state should explore alternatives to
requiring testing for education degrees.

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